MANNHEIM, Germany – The long awaited trial of Holocaust heretic Ernst Zündel, which began here in a dismal fortress-like concrete courthouse on November 8, offers only the slightest appearance of modern jurisprudence.

More than anything else, what occurred during the first day of the Zündel trial was reminiscent of the heresy trial of Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, which was held in the nearby town of Worms in 1521.

Like Luther, Zündel is on trial for his heretical writings and beliefs. While Luther was tried by Emperor Charles the Fifth, 484 years ago, at the Diet of Worms for heresy because of his denial of Roman Catholic doctrine, the charges against Zündel amount to modern day heresy for holding opinions contrary to the state-supported dogma of the Jewish Holocaust.

The Holocaust has, in effect, become the state church in Germany and other European nations. While there is no protection of traditional church doctrine, it is punishable by law in Germany, and other European states, to even question the Zionist version of the Holocaust, an historical event which allegedly occurred in Europe 60-65 years ago.

“The Zionists want to impose the religion of the alleged ‘Holocaust’ of the Jews on the whole world,” the renowned French Holocaust heretic Robert Faurisson said in an interview on November 2. “It is normal that Jews and Zionists should seek to foist such an imposture on us, for it is the sword and the shield of the Jews in general and of the Jewish State in particular.”

“The Jews’ power stems directly from the Western world’s near-total belief in the phenomenal lie of the ‘Holocaust,” Faurisson said. “You needn’t look any further.

“The Jews do not tolerate any questioning of the ‘Holocaust,'” Faurisson told the Mehr News Agency of Iran. “Against the revisionists they use physical violence and judicial repression because, on the level of historical and scientific argumentation, they have been defeated hands down by the revisionists. We have been able to expose their lies, one by one. Therefore Jews and Zionists seek refuge in violence and intimidation. They treat revisionists like Palestinians.”

The first day of the Zündel trial did indeed resemble an Israeli court judging a Palestinian. The court was adjourned before the charges against Zündel could even be read. Presiding Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen and state prosecutor Andreas Grossmann appeared to have come prepared with one strategy in mind: to dismiss Zündel’s powerful defense team and replace it with a malleable court-appointed attorney.

After reading a 7-page litany of complaints against Zündel and his legal counsel Horst Mahler, Meinerzhagen ordered Mahler to leave the defense team’s table on grounds that he is no longer permitted to practice law in Germany. Mahler was disbarred in March 2004 for holding unlawful opinions about the Holocaust.

Judge Meinerzhagen threatened to have Mahler thrown into jail if he did not leave the table.

Finally, at 11:09 a.m., surrounded by three green-clad policemen, and heeding the suggestion of defense team member Dr. Herbert Schaller of Austria, Mahler left the defense table and took a seat in the first row of public seating.

The courtroom was packed with some 130 supporters of Zündel and members of the press. As defense attorneys Sylvia Stolz and Jürgen Rieger protested the court’s bias and abuse of power there were several rounds of applause that caused Meinerzhagen to completely lose his composure.

Stolz stood her ground and insisted that Mahler was her assistant. Meinerzhagen then dismissed her of her duties although she is Zündel’s state-appointed public defender. At this point, Jürgen Rieger applied for a Gefangenheitsantrag, a motion requesting the judge to recuse himself for obvious bias against Mahler and Stolz.

Thr Gefangenheitsantrag petition will be considered by the Mannheim district court and the decision handed down on November 15.

Rieger told the court that its actions threatening the Zündel defense team were worse than those of the Soviet Gulag system. Rieger said that the defense lawyers were threatened that if they presented evidence they would be punished.

“Little Germany is the most oppressive country in Europe,” Rieger said later when asked by American Free Press about his comparison with the Soviet court system.
“It is like the Middle Ages when witches were burned at the stake,” he said. “Only today we don’t burn Holocaust heretics – we just throw them in jail.”

Zündel has spent more than two and a half years in jail waiting for his trial since he was arrested in his home in Tennessee on February 5, 2003. Two weeks later he was deported to Canada, where he has held permanent resident status, and there he spent the next two years in solitary confinement in the Toronto West Detention Centre, on the pretext that he was a threat to national security. Zündel is married to Ingrid Rimland, an American citizen.

This reporter sat directly in front of the judge in the first row and could see that he seemed seething with anger and suffering from undue stress. Prosecutor Grossmann, sitting across from Zündel and his four lawyers, spent much of the time examining and chewing his nails.

In the court of Meinerzhagen and Grossmann, who both appear to be devoted disciples of the Holocaust, it appears highly unlikely that any evidence will be presented that will challenge the state-supported Holocaust doctrine.

This is because a German law, Paragraph 130 of the penal code, prevents any public discussion that questions the veracity of the accepted version of the Holocaust, which is itself not at all clear. For this reason, there appear to be two options: to have an open trial in which no evidence is heard or to have a secret trial in which the evidence is not made public.

“We Can Only Win”

Zündel and his defense team were beaming as the court adjourned until November 15. At an open press conference at Mannheim’s Hotel Wartburg, the defense team took questions and explained their position in English and German.

“We can only win,” Mahler said, adding that there will either be an open trial or a closed trial with evidence.

Rieger said the court can “kick us out,” referring to the defense team. This is certainly what the judge seems to be trying to do.

Stolz, who is being advised by Mahler, said the court has only two possibilities. The first option would be for the court to dismiss the defense petition to close the court and hear evidence, in which case the court would stay open and the defense would request evidence to be presented. This would expose the “ridiculous” predicament the German law presents for the court, Stolz said.

The second option is that the judge would decide to lock out the press and the public and the Zündel trial would become a secret trial in which evidence could be presented.

American Free Press was the only press outlet that attended the defense team’s conference. The rest of the press had already gone home to file critical stories meant to minimize the importance of the trial and marginalize Zündel’s supporters.

The Bild tabloid, the semi-pornographic propaganda outlet of Axel Springer which was heavily funded by the CIA in the 1940’s, for example, in a very limited article tried to discredit Zündel’s many supporters by describing them as being foreigners or Germans who were outlandishly dressed in traditional clothes.

As the crowd of supporters waited to pass the security check point outside the courtroom, an unidentified young man with a Jewish skull cap repeatedly filmed the crowd. Photographed and asked by AFP who he was filming for, the camera man would only say “no comment,” but said he was Israeli.

Later, he and another skull-cap clad man who had been in the court room attended the press conference with what appeared to be a group of local supporters of Zündel. However, why this group would put up such a charade and film the crowd of supporters is not at all clear.